By Raymond H. Schmandt

The Holy Roman Empire
was the medieval state that embraced most of central Europe and
Italy under the rule of the German kings from 962 to 1806. It was
considered to be a restoration and continuation of the ancient
Roman Empire, although in fact it had little in common with its
predecessor. Earlier, the Frankish king Charlemagne had revived
the same name. His Roman Empire lasted from 800 to 925. In 962,
Otto I of Germany and Pope John XII cooperated in a second
revival. Threatened in his possession of the Papal States by
Berengar II, king of Italy, John begged Otto to come to his aid.
Otto did so, and the Pope solemnly crowned him Emperor of the
Romans as a reward. From this time, the German kings claimed the
right to rule the empire.

In theory, the Holy
Roman Empire (the word "Holy" was added during the 12th
century) reflected two important medieval values: the unity of
all Christians, or at least all Western Christians, in a single
state as the civil counterpart to the One Holy Catholic Church;
and a concept of hierarchical political organisation that called
for one ultimate head over all existing states. In practice, the
empire never fully conformed to either ideal. France and England, for
example, never acknowledged any real subordination to the emperor,
although they recognised a vague supremacy in him. The empire's aims varied according to
the program and philosophy of the many emperors and popes who
controlled its destiny. The German kings - who called themselves kings of
the Romans, not kings of Germany, as soon as they were elected by the German
princes - considered themselves entitled to become Roman emperor as
soon as they could arrange the imperial coronation, which was
supposed to take place in Rome at the hands of the Pope. (By later
convention, they are called kings of Germany, however, and many of
them never secured imperial coronation.) From the ruler's point of
view, the imperial title established his right to control Italy and
Burgundy as well as Germany and was thus a potential source of
power, wealth, and prestige. The Empire's vast size and the
disparity of its peoples, however, were serious obstacles to
effective rule and good government.

The churchmen who
crowned the emperors, and thus actually sustained the Empire,
considered it to be the church's secular arm, sharing
responsibility for the welfare and spread of the Christian faith
and duty-bound to protect the Papacy. This view of the
relationship between church and state, which dated from the reign
of Roman emperor Constantine I, was generally accepted by both
emperors and Popes. In practice, however, this partnership seldom
worked smoothly, as one of the partners inevitably tried to
dominate the other.
Frequent fluctuations in the actual power and vitality of each
individual as well as changes in the prevailing political and
theological theories gave a fluid, dynamic quality to the
empire's history.

The first age, from 962
to 1250, was dominated by the strong emperors of the Saxon,
Salian (or Franconian), and Hohenstaufen dynasties. These
emperors made serious efforts to control Italy, which in
practical political terms was the most important part of the
empire. Their power, however, depended on their German resources,
which were never great. Italy consisted of the Lombard area, with
its wealthy towns; the Papal States; scattered regions still
claimed by the Byzantine Empire; and the Norman kingdom of Naples
and Sicily. The emperors generally tried to govern through
existing officials such as counts and bishops rather than by
creating a direct administrative system. The papacy, weak and
disturbed by the Roman aristocracy, needed the emperors, who,
during the Saxon and early Salian generations, thought of the
Bishop of Rome as subject to the same kind of control that they
exercised over their own German bishops. Henry III, for example,
deposed unsatisfactory Popes and nominated new ones as he deemed
fit.

During the reigns of Henry IV and Henry V in the late 11th and
early 12th centuries, the papacy was influenced by a powerful
reform movement that demanded an end to lay domination. Popes
Gregory VII and Urban II insisted on independence for the papacy
and for the church in general during the Investiture Controversy.
Later Popes continued jealously to guard their freedom, and this
produced conflict with the Hohenstaufen emperors Frederick I and
Frederick II, both of whom wanted to exercise control over all of
Italy. The later Hohenstaufen emperors gained control of the Norman
kingdom in southern Italy and declared it a fief of the popes, who
nevertheless worried about their independence and often supported
the emperors' Lombard foes. In the 13th century, Popes Innocent
III, Gregory IX, and Innocent IV restricted the authority of Otto
IV and Frederick II in many bitter disputes.

During the age of the
princes, from 1250 to 1438, the emperors were much weaker. They
exercised minimal authority in Italy, and many of them were never
crowned emperor by the pope. Even in Germany their power was
reduced, for Frederick II had dissipated royal prerogatives and
resources in his northern lands while struggling to dominate
Italy. The emperors were unable to restrain the German nobles or
to resist French encroachments on the western frontiers of the
empire, and the Slavic rulers in the east rejected all imperial
overlordship. The Guelphs, or anti-imperialists in Italy (see
Guelfs and Ghibellines), spoke of ending the empire or transferring
it to the French kings. Political theorists such as Engelbert of
Admont (1250-1331), Alexander of Roes (fl. late 13th century), and
even Dante, however, insisted that the German emperors were needed.
Marsilius of Padua, in his Defensor pacis, argued for the
end of all papal influence on the empire.

At this time the practice of electing the German king, or
emperor, was given formal definition by the Golden Bull (1356) of
Emperor Charles IV. This document, which defined the status of the
seven German princely electors, made it clear that the emperor held
office by election rather than hereditary right. The electors
usually chose insignificant rulers who could not interfere with the
electors' privileges, but such rulers could neither govern
effectively nor maintain imperial rights. Their power was largely
limited to strengthening their own families. The empire
consequently began to disintegrate into nearly independent
territories or self-governing groups such as the Hanseatic
League.

After 1438 the electors
almost always chose a member of the Habsburg dynasty of Austria
as king; the one exception was the election (1742) of the
Bavarian Charles VII. The Habsburg Frederick III was
the last emperor to be crowned in Rome; his great-grandson
Charles V was the last to be crowned by a pope.

By this time
a few of the more farsighted princes saw the need to strengthen
the empire's central government. From 1485 to 1555 these
reformers strove to create a federal system. The diet, originally
a loose assembly of princes, had been organised into three
strata-electors, princes, and representatives of the imperial
cities-by the Golden Bull and came to resemble a legislature. In
1500 it was proposed that an executive committee (Reichsregiment)
appointed by the diet be given administrative authority. A system
of imperial courts was created, and permanent institutions to
provide for defence and taxation were also discussed. The various
states were organised into ten districts or circles.

These reform efforts seldom worked, however, because the princes
would not relinquish their jurisdiction. The situation was further
complicated by the advent of the Reformation, which fostered
religious conflicts that divided the principalities against one
another. In addition, the princes became alarmed at the sudden growth
of power of the Habsburgs when that dynasty acquired Spain. Under the
guise of the Counter-Reformation, Ferdinand II and Ferdinand III
tried to concentrate power in their hands, but defeat in the Thirty
Years' War undid their efforts and proved that the empire could not
reform itself.

After the Treaty of
Westphalia (1648) the Holy Roman Empire was little more than a
loose confederation of about 300 independent principalities and
1,500 or more semi-sovereign bodies or individuals. Threats from
the Ottoman Empire or from Louis XIV of France occasionally
stimulated imperial cooperation, but usually each state
considered only its own welfare. The Austrian-Prussian wars,
Hanover's acquisition of the English throne, and Saxony's holding
of the Polish crown exemplify the particularism that prevailed.

Napoleon I finally destroyed the empire. After defeating Austria
and its imperial allies in 1797 and 1801, he annexed some German
land and suggested that the larger territories compensate themselves
by confiscating the free cities and ecclesiastical states. By the
Diet's Recess (1803), 112 small states were thus seized by their
neighbours. Three years later Napoleon compelled 16 German states
to form the Confederation of the Rhine and to secede from the
empire.
On March 6, 1806, Francis II, who had previously assumed the title
of Emperor of Austria, abdicated as Holy Roman Emperor and declared
the old empire dissolved.

The Holy Roman Empire,
ended by a decision of the last Emperor, Francis II, on 6 August
1806, had already long ceased to be a major political power even
though the prestige of the Imperial title conferred immense
status and influence. Indeed, its description as neither Holy,
nor Roman, nor an Empire was peculiarly apposite. The Holy Roman,
or German Empire as it should better be described, could justly
claim to be the successor of the Western Roman Empire despite its
later foundation.
Although the Eastern Empire of Byzantium, which expired in 1453,
had enjoyed an unbroken succession from the time of Constantine
the Great, its claim to jurisdiction beyond the boundaries of the
western Balkans was never acknowledged.

The Empire of the Germans was founded by Charles the Great
(Charlemagne), whose coronation on Christmas Day 800 gave Papal
approval to the unification of France, most of modern Germany, the
Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, and northern Italy under his
rule. Although his male line descendants had died out within little
more than a century, Charlemagne is the ancestor of
every existing Christian European ruling or former ruling
dynasty. The only modern survivors of the Empire are the
ecclesiastical Princes - the German Archbishops and Bishops -
and the Sovereign Princes of Liechtenstein. With the death of
Charlemagne no ruler until Napoleon ever held sway over his lands
and the Imperial title became the legacy of the Germans.

The Emperor, although
himself usually an hereditary ruler of one or more states within
the Empire, was elected to office. Nonetheless, several dynasties
managed to perpetuate their grip upon the Imperial title. The
surest means of establishing dynastic rule was for the Emperor to
insure that his immediate heir was the inevitable choice of the
"Electors" by having him nominated King of the Romans
in his own lifetime. Those Princes who, by the early thirteenth
century, had established their claim to the title of Electors of
the Empire were the Prince Archbishops of Koln (Archchancellor of
Italy), Trier (Archchancellor of Gaul) and Mainz (Archchancellor
of Germany), the King of Bohemia (Imperial Cup Bearer) the Duke
of Saxony (Imperial Marshal), the Count Palatine of the Rhine
(Imperial Seneschal), and the MarkGraf (Margrave in English) of
Brandenburg. Their number was formerly codified in an Imperial
Bull issued by the Emperor Karl IV (of Luxembourg, King of
Bohemia). That this Bull was issued without reference to Papal
authority indicates the decline of Papal power since the Avignon
schism. Henry IV's humiliation at Canossa would never be
repeated.

The Reformation was the greatest blow to Imperial power,
resulting in increasing Hohenzollern power with the acquisition of
the Duchy of Prussia and the conversion of Church lands into
hereditary fiefs. The religious wars of the sixteenth century and
the Thirty Years war in the early seventeenth led to a further
diminution of Imperial power, even though the Habsburgs' rule in
Bohemia was consolidated. The number of Electors was increased to
eight with the elevation of the Wittelsbach Duchy of Bavaria to the
status of Electorate (giving that family two Electors, the other
being the Elector Palatine) in 1648, following the changes wrought
by the Thirty Years war. In 1692 a fourth was added in the person
of the Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg-Hannover, who became Elector of
Hannover (united with the British crown in 1714). Shortly before
the collapse of the Empire, the Emperor Napoleon imposed his own
reorganisation of the German states and four more princes were
added to the ranks of the Electors (three lay Electors,
Hesse-Cassel, Baden and Wurtemberg, and one ecclesiastical, the
Archbishop of Salzburg - an Austrian Archduke) while the
Archbishops of Mainz, Trier and Köln lost their sovereignty and
electoral rank.

From
1438 until 1740 the Imperial Crown was held continually by the
Habsburgs, who initially did not hold an Electoral seat. The
German Electors, however, chose the first Habsburg Emperors
because most of their hereditary territories were outside the
formal boundaries of the Empire itself. Until the late fifteenth century
the Habsburgs still followed the German practice of dividing
their territories between sons so Austria, Styria, Carniola,
Carinthia and the Tyrol - which were later to compose part of
the Empire of Austria - were often ruled by different members of
the family. In 1437, Sigismond of Hungary and Bohemia died
leaving an only daughter, to be succeeded by his son-in-law
Albrecht V (of Habsburg), Duke of Austria. Albrecht was now
elected King of the Romans as Albrecht II but died before the
coronation which would have allowed him to take the Imperial
style. While the Crowns of Bohemia and Hungary passed first to
his short-lived son and then to his son-in-law the King of
Poland, in 1440 the Electors chose Albrecht's cousin and
successor as ruler of Austria, Frederick V of Styria (first
Arch duke of Austria in 1458), to be Emperor. The Imperial
Crown remained the privilege of the Habsburgs for the next three
hundred years.

Frederick
was the last Emperor to be crowned by the Pope in Rome and did much to consolidate the
Habsburg possessions. His great-grandson, the Emperor Charles V
(1500-1558) united in his person the Imperial Crown, the hugely
wealthy Duchies of Burgundy and Brabant, the Duchy of Milan, the
Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily and the Crown of Spain. The
latter's brother Ferdinand acquired by marriage the Crowns of
Hungary and Bohemia in 1526. Unable to rule this vast Empire
effectively, Charles abdicated the Crown of Spain, the Italian
possessions and the Burgundian inheritance to his only son,
Philip II, in 1556, and resigned the Imperial Crown to insure its
inheritance by his brother Ferdinand, who was the first Habsburg
to combine the Imperial Crowns with those of Austria, Hungary and
Bohemia.

The male line of the Habsburgs became extinct with the death of
Charles VI in 1740. The senior line, of Kings of Spain, had died
out in the male line with the death of the unfortunate King Charles
II in 1700 when his Spanish possessions passed to his Bourbon
great-nephew. The Spanish Netherlands (originally part of the
Burgundian territories) then passed to Austria, while Naples and
Sicily were divided, to be temporarily reunited before being
reacquired by the Bourbons in 1734. Charles VI left an only
daughter, Maria-Teresa, who had been married off to Francis, Duke of
Lorraine, founding the Habsburg-Lothringen dynasty which ruled in
Austria, Hungary and Bohemia until 1918. Francis surrendered
Lorraine (an Imperial fief) to France as the temporary sovereign
Duchy of the French King's father-in-law, the former King of
Poland, from whom it passed to France on his death in 1766. After
a five year interregnum, during which time the Elector of Bavaria
held the Imperial Crown, Francis was elected Emperor. Following
his death his eldest son, Joseph II, succeeded as the first
Habsburg-Lothringen Emperor.

The Empire included not only the territories of the nine
Electors, but also more than three hundred small lay and
ecclesiastical states whose numbers fluctuated when male lines
died out and families merged or divided. These petty rulers
enjoyed limited "sovereignty" over states which sometimes included
no more than a few villages. Many of the Bishoprics governed small
territories which gave them the status of "immediate"
[1] Imperial vassals. Some of the larger Abbeys and Convents
enjoyed similar status - their superiors composed the largest
number of "elected" rulers, both men and women, Europe
has ever seen, even though only chosen by their fellow religious
brothers or sisters. A smaller number of these
"immediate" sovereigns had the right to a seat in the
Imperial Diet, a jealously guarded privilege which gave them some
say in the legislative and governmental affairs of the Empire and
considerable prestige. In the middle of the seventeenth century
there were forty-three lay members and thirty-three
ecclesiastical members of the Diet but their numbers expanded
steadily until the Empire's collapse. The Diet included the
Electors, the rulers of the larger Duchies such as Wurtemberg,
and Oldenburg, the smaller Saxon states and Anhalt, and a larger
number of Sovereign Princes and Sovereign Counts. Some of the
ecclesiastical rulers enjoyed the status of Princes, others only
that of Counts and were ranked accordingly. The High Master of
the Teutonic Knights, the Grand Prior of Germany of the Order of
Saint John (Malta), and the Master of the Knights of the
Johanniter Order also had seats in the Diet, ranking as Princes
of the Empire.

The titles of Duke, Prince, Count, Baron, Knight and Noble of
the Empire were conferred by Imperial patent. The vast majority of
the lower ranks never enjoyed any kind of sovereignty, however,
having been elevated on the basis of services to their superior
lord, the Emperor himself, or by right of some territory they owned
which was itself subject to an immediate Imperial vassal. Most such
conferrals were made at the request of the superior lord of the
beneficiary - an Elector or Duke perhaps, but the MarkGraf of
Brandenburg as King in and then of Prussia was able
to confer titles in his own right. Later the Electors of Bavaria
conferred titles as did some of the other greater Princes while
many of the rulers of smaller states had been invested with the
right to confer nobility. Imperial Nobility and titles always
passed by male succession, most titles being inherited by all the
male descendants and by females until marriage (or religious
profession). Noble territories could pass by female succession
but use of the corresponding title would have to be confirmed in
a new Imperial patent.

Imperial authority extended also to the Netherlands and Italy,
and some of the higher North Italian titles (particularly that of
Prince) and Netherlandish titles were conferred by Imperial grant.
The Imperial Viceroys, as rulers of the Netherlands, Milan and
Naples and Sicily also conferred titles but these were not
Holy Roman Empire titles and their recipients did not rank as
Reichsherren, Reichsritter, Reichsfreiherr or Reichsgraf.

During the years preceding and immediately following the collapse
of the Empire there was considerable readjustment of territories
between states - mostly to the benefit of the larger states which
were consolidated within contiguous borders - and of the titles of
their rulers. The Electors of Saxony, Wurtemberg and Bavaria
became Kings, as did the Elector of Hannover following the
downfall of Napoleon, although as King of Great Britain he
already enjoyed the royal style. The Kingdom of Westphalia was
created for Jerome Bonaparte after territories seized from
Hannover, Brunswick and various ecclesiastical states on the
right bank of the Rhine but ceased to exist in 1814 when its
lands were redistributed - those on the Rhine being given as a
prize to the King of Prussia.

The Duchies of Mecklemburg-Schwerin, Mecklemburg-Strelitz, the
Duchy of Oldenburg, the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar, and the Margravate
of Baden were elevated to the status of Grand Duchies as was the
Landgravate of Hesse-Darmstadt. The Grand Duchy of Berg and
Cleves (given first to Murat and his wife Caroline Bonaparte,
then Napoleon-Louis, the second son of Hortense de Beauharnais
and Louis Bonaparte), the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt (given first
to Emmerich de Dalberg and then Eugčne de Beauharnais), and the
Grand Duchy of Wurzburg (given to the Grand Duke of Tuscany as
compensation for the loss of his Italian states) were all created
out of former ecclesiastical states or the territories of
Napoleon's enemies. Their territories were redistributed after
1814 and their rulers deposed, while the Grand Duke of Tuscany
was restored to Florence. The Duchy of Luxembourg was raised to
the status of Grand Duchy and added to the Kingdom of the United
Netherlands (until 1890 when it passed to the Duke of Nassau), as
were the former Austrian Netherlands, until they gained their
independence as the Kingdom of the Belgians in 1830. Some states
which survived the initial dissolution of the Empire, notably the
Duchy of Arenberg which was actually enlarged after 1806, and the
Principality of Leyen, were unable to hold onto sovereignty in
1814, lacking the close family relationships to the sovereigns of
the victorious powers whose influence might have enabled them to
hold their thrones.

The Imperial nobility enjoys a more elevated status than the
nobilities of the German successor states and, indeed, of the
Italian states. The descendants of Italian Holy Roman Empire
titles have formed an Association
to which every male line descendant of someone ennobled by Imperial
Patent is entitled to belong. The Principality of Liechtenstein has
also claimed to be able to confirm the succession to Imperial titles
and has confirmed the right of a Spanish nobleman to be heir to
such a title, for purposes of
the Spanish law requiring the successor state to confirm that the
claimant to a particular title is in fact the heir. Thus there is
a remaining jurisdiction, even though no Imperial titles have been
conferred since 1806.

[1] I.e. they held their
lands by virtue of a grant from the Emperor, and owed him feudal
homage.
[2] (this section omitted)
[3] Not including those Houses elevated after 1806 to the rank of
King or Grand Duke, which ranked accordingly.
[4] United with the Crown of the Netherlands until 1890; then
ceded to the former reigning Duke of Nassau.
[5] Arenberg only; Looz-Corswarem although a Duchy were
mediatised by right of the Principality of Rheina-Wolbeck.
[6] The Pallavicini, and the Gonzaga, are still Markgrafen of the
Holy Roman Empire; the latter are also Princes.
[7] Only the Furstenbergs, a mediatised house, and the Hesse
family, possess this title although the Saxon Dukes were entitled
Landgrafs of Thuringia among their subsidiary titles.
[8] The titles of Alt, Rhein and Wild Graf were ancient
privileges which have been perpetuated by
certain families but do not actually confer any particular
precedence between them.

This Association was established
in 1963 to unite in its membership descendants in the male line of
individuals invested with nobility of the Holy Roman Empire. It also
includes a number of honorary members. It was founded by Prince
Giovanni Alliata di Montereale and Count Giancarlo Bonifazi di
Statte.